1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for displaying information in the view finder of a camera, and particularly to such an apparatus having a plurality of light emission elements for displaying information at a plurality of adjacent positions.
2. Description of Prior Art
There is known a camera having a view finder in which various data of information are display by the use of miniature and durable light emission elements such as light emission diodes. The information displayed in the view finder include various reference characters such as shutter speeds, diaphragm openings, marks for indicating various conditions of exposure, and others which are often displayed at very adjacent locations in the view finder because the reference characters are displayed on the narrow peripheral areas of the view finder out of its visual field. Therefore, the light emission elements for illuminating these adjacent reference characters also are located at very adjacent positions. One of the adjacent light emission elements may illuminate and visualize any other reference character that should be illuminated by any other adjacent light emission element. This results in mis-discrimination or confusion with respect to the displayed information. Means for restricting the illuminatable area of a light emission element to overcome the above problem is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Application No. 57-130828.
This laid-open application describes an apparatus for displaying information in the view finder of a camera, in which each of light emission diodes is surrounded by a light blocking frame so that only the corresponding reference character on a display film can be illuminated by that light emission diode through a light diffusion tape. Thus, the illuminatable area of the light emission diode can be limited by the light blocking frame so that any other reference character to be illuminated by the other adjacent light emission diode will not be illuminated by the subject light emission diode.
If the light from each of the light emission diodes is diffused by the light diffusion tape so that the reference character will uniformly be illuminated by that light, however, the reference character will be illuminated with very reduced efficiency. Thus, the illuminated reference character will be dark and hard to observe. On the contrary, if the light emission diode is energized with increased power to increase the illuminance for that reference character, the power supply will more be consumed leading to increase of the power supply capacity. This is a severe problem for portable cameras which utilize small-sized batteries.